Gaming on the new Pro?

Hi guys,

I made a thread in gaming but I thought I ask you anyway.

I was thinking of getting a Windows laptop however due to the more SLi tech on offer for gaming and appliance to the new CS4 which utlilises the GPU.

Anyway on another hand we all use Macs at study and work, however, I really like to play games too. So can the new Pro play Crysis, COD5 the new one?, Dead Space any good?.

Cheers

 

i suppose you could with Wine or Bootcamp, yes. both are programs that let you run Windows OSes in OSX.

 

You could boot Windows on it and play games, but well, I mean, read my sig.
You'd basically be paying a ton of money for nothing since the ONLY difference between a Mac and a PC (besides the huge price difference) is the operating system is unique on a Mac.

 

Having Windows on a Mac is totally legit. If you are getting a mac so that you can use OS X for most of the basic computing tasks and have a Windows partition that you game on, that just makes your system more versatile and flexible. I would encourage it.

I think what Hep wants to keep you from is buying the MBP just to game on and just to use Windows on it... that would be pointless because you can get other better systems for better deals.

For your case though I would recommend you install Windows via Bootcamp and VMWare fusion. The latter is a virtual machine that lets you run Windows in OS X so that you dont have to do a tedious reboot for a small app you need to use on Windows.

 

Exactly however, anyone have experiences with the games I mentioned?. 9600GT sounds good but I have no knowledge of current CPU etc.

 

Yes, you can run games and it runs average on the OSX, but if you really want to run it well, i suggest running windows under bootcamp

for you to have an idea:

TF2:

Bootcamp, Windows XP : 70fps at max settings
OS X, Crossover : 30fps at low - medium settings

havent tried the new games, but for gaming, definitely stick to windows for the games u mentioned

 

I should be more exact.

I know about Bootcamp and I used it before, however, what I want to know is how is the performance of the new tech in the Pro handle games like COD4, Crysis?

 

CoD4 will max out even with anti-anilasing at a good 60fps. Crysis should run close to maxed out, probably all high if you don't mind a framerate at around 20-25fps, otherwise you should get 45fps close to maxed out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rfHSDgibgo

Just make sure to play all of your games in Bootcamp. Thew 9600M GT is a lot faster than I was expecting it to be. Even though it's slower than the 8800 GT in my desktop, I have a feeling that I'll be gaming on my MacBook Pro a lot more. I think it's pretty interesting how the MBP is scoring benchmarks around 50% higher than laptops with the same specs.

 

since you seem to be so sure that the new MBP's price premium is for OS X alone, can you point me to a windows laptop that offers the same balance of lightness, thinness, features, and power?

i am willing to sell a brand new MBP... i don't really like OS X that much lol and my old MBP was replaced by apple since it needed so many logic board repairs. i'm just having a hard time finding a windows notebook with the same style...

so i will probably just end up keeping this thing.

 

dont forget to add the battery considering the size/power

honestly, if there was any laptop with over 4 hours of battery life, discrete graphics, and less or equal to the MBP i would be sold

 

crysis close to maxed out on a 9600gt? that guy wasn't running it close to maxed out he even says shadows and shaders were set to low and running it in DX 9 mode, also 9600gt gets around 5000 3dmark06 your 8800gt should get around 11000, the 9600gt is no slouch but we have to be realistic.

 

Well the 9600MGT doesn't score 5,000 3dmark06, but 6,000.

And the 8800M GTX (I suppose you were talking about that one) doesn't score 11,000, but 9-10,000.

So the numbers are pretty close. You do have to consider form-factor as well.

I can play Dead Space, fully-maxed, native res (1440x900), never dipping under 30FPS. Cinema quality. On an aluminum computer that weighs 2.5Kg and is lees than an inch thin.

I'm sure that, the m17 for example, can play it 1920x1200 fully maxed out, 5 Billion FPS, in a 2.7 inch thick plastic case that weighs 6Kg (10+ pounds)

 

He meant 8800GT for desktop.Its correct what he said.

I'm going to have a M17 which is 1.7inches.
Have smth to say?

 

So you're going to pay 1000 extra dollars for .6 less inches? Well, I'll still make fun of you then.

 

Big difference between 6,000 an the 9,000 for the 8800.

I like the new Macs alot,however, since I'm in the game - no pun intended for a new laptop I want something that looks beautiful and the only similar PC lappy I found were VAIOs but the GPU are lame compared to what offer companies offer. The new Macs are beautiful and I do use them at work however, 6,000 seems quite low for the GPU.

 

well, if you dont move around that much, i agree, but for people who needs to carry their laptop around and wants to have a nice and large screen when they get back home, i'd take the macbook pro all the way

and you pay extra 1000 dollars for:
- reduced size
- reduced weight
- aluminium body
- better screen
- longer battery life
and this list can go on forever

 

Okay... make it go on a bit longer. Because you can find the screen and battery life elsewhere. You pay for a bit smaller of a system and the aluminum body.

 

Really no sense arguing it. There are diehard PC fanbois and diehard Mac fanbois. Some of us are comfortable living in both worlds...

 

Well said, The Shirt.

 

Yeah, I live in both as well, I have several macs (though many more PCs, and all of my Macs are PPC). I just hate how everyone's moving in this idiotic direction of buying Macs, acting like it's way better than a normal PC... it's different, but not once you install Windows.

It's just my opinion but I'm sticking to it.

 

Not sure I'd call it idiotic to move to a Mac. It's kind of like automobiles. We could all get where ever we wanted in a Geo or Neon or some other 10k car. But lots of folks drive cars that cost $30k+ because that's what they like. I didn't buy a Mac thinking it was "better" than a PC. I bought a Mac because I've never had one before. I do, however, have a first generation iPhone and it's the best cell and smartphone I've ever owned...which led me to trying out the Mac. I did like the fact there was a lot of programs on Leopard that don't come with Windows (garageband, iphoto, ilife, etc).

I do have Windows installed on my MBP...for gaming...but it's still way different since I run everything else in Leopard (well, except my Sony ebook library since it's not available for Mac, and my defragging program, and spyware/anti-virus program, and registry cleaner program, and CC Cleaner, and the other things I need to keep Windows running optimally).

 

But then you're still using OSX as the primary OS...
My problem is with people who ditch OSX completely and just install XP/Vista.

 

I haven't e-meet someone on this forum who have done that...BTW,my HDX has Vista and it is the only problem with it-it crashes every time I try to access nVidia panel or OC...

 

I am a VERY heavy PC gamer. I bought a Santa Rosa Macbook Pro (2.4Ghz C2D, 4GB RAM, 8600m GT GDDR3) and it has served me quite well in the gaming arena. (All Source Games, Crysis, Bioshock, Supreme Commander, etc)

I stuck Vista Ultimate 32bit on this sucker when I bought it, and I've been flying since. I rarely ever log into Leopard anymore, not because I don't love it, but because I like staying logged into Steam and my GOG.com games only run in Vista.

What people don't realize, is that when you buy a Mac and install Vista (or XP, though I think an MBP is more suited to Vista), you are buying the luxury that is BootCamp. All of the required drivers are installed, and mostly kept updated using the Apple Software Updater. There is NO bloatware, because you installed a fresh copy of Vista. Things just WORK.

The ONLY thing you ever need to update is the videocard driver if you like keeping up on the bleeding edge of Nvidia releases. So what? Every other laptop owner is generally in the same situation.

I log into OSX to get firmware updates, but otherwise my gaming laptop *I mean my MBP* now lives eternally as what some would call an abomination, and what I'd call the first classy gaming rig.

Note: One thing I can't deny, going this path is expensive.

 

Hep, when we tell people to install windows, we dont mean ONLY install windows. We mean just install it using bootcamp so you can play games if you want to.

I think maybe what you're getting mixed up in this discussion.

People who just buy macs for the looks, and install windows on it only, well thats their choice on how they wanna spend their money, and probably would do it anyways.

 

where can you find a 15.4" laptop, with discrete graphics that can run longer than 4 hours that weighs around 5.5lbs?

please point it to me cause i will be very interested

im not a mac fan, far from that, i think windows has a lot more utility than the OS X, if the vaio Z had a better graphics card i would take it in a heartbeat..

 

Try a couple of these and do some research on their battery life.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834117682 - 5.75 lb

I made a "compare items" list for you. Not sure if the link works.
There are about six/seven other items on the list other than the one I linked to but they are around 5.8 pounds.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...5:14143,445:14141,445:14144,445:14142&bop=And

However, one thing to note is if the Macbook Pro really gets four hours on its discrete GPU in real world usage.

 

For those of you who have gamed with the new MacBook Pro via bootcamp and windows. How hot does it get and have you noticed any problems stemming from the heat? If so, have you done anything special to aid in cooling? I'm going to game with my Mac this weekend and would like to know what to expect.

Thanks!

HM

 

I've been playing Fallout 3 on my MBP (late 2008). It does a great job of clicking the fans up to high when needed (on my Dell I always had to do this manually). I don't have a temp guage set up on the Windows side yet, but it does put out a good bit of heat (left side keys get warm), but it doesn't seem any worse than my Dell 1710. I usually have mine setting on a laptop cooler then on my lap, because I like the way the cooler angles the keys and keeps the laptop balanced. I haven't had any instances of overheating shutdown which would happen occassionally on the Dell.

 

Thanks Shirt...can't wait to give it a try!

 

Sounds good, any pics of Fallout 3 which is one of the games I'm looking to play besides from COD and Dead Space.

 

I'm considering getting a Macbook Pro and (pretty much) only running Vista on it, because Apple's supposed to have a good warranty, and I need a decent CPU, GPU, and LED backlighting, and there aren't many choices out there

Do you know if you can use your Bootcamp install of Windows through VMWare now? (Versus having to have TWO separate installs of Windows on the same machine? )

How does that work? I've installed Windows on a Mac before, and found it to be the most painless install of Windows I've ever done (at least once I figured out how to turn my XP CD into a SP2 CD).

But...how do the drivers get updated? Does Apple's Software Update on Windows actually update their Windows drivers without rebooting to OS X? If so, that's phenomenal!

I was under the impression that you had to download a new version of Bootcamp on OS X when one gets installed, then set that up again and burn a new driver CD, then boot back to Windows and install it.

Are you just forcing the regular reference drivers to install? That's what I did on the Macbook Pro I messed around with, and then went on just fine. In fact, Windows still knew that the GPU was a mobile one, even though I was running desktop drivers!

Also, the fan seemed to correctly ramp up when it was being pushed hard (again, even though I was running desktop drivers). I've heard that some laptops don't control the fan correctly if you're doing desktop drivers, that you need to install some separate utility to manually ramp it up before pushing the GPU.
I'm not sure if that's true, or why that would be (or why that apparently isn't needed on the Macbook Pro). My guess is the GPU doesn't technically have it's own fan on the MBP. That its fan is a system fan, and just continues being controlled by the system, regardless of what video drivers are installed.

 

Did you even read the link you sent me? the first two reviews already complains about the battery life.. plus, the video card is inferior to the 9600M GT and this is and outdated model

and none of the ones you showed me has a battery life longer than 4 hours..

and i dont care if its discrete or not, i want it to last 4 hours on-the-go and have a powerful GPU at home

 

Since I'm not going to spend the hours doing research, I'll let others post what they think meets your requirements.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=320154

Hey, I could be wrong, but you said you're a hardcore gamer and I'd rather get something like this:
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9050279&type=product&id=1218012519873
It's slightly bigger, but it has a significantly more powerful video card. I don't know the battery life, which is why I posted a thread. Just because I don't have it off the top of my head, doesn't mean someone else doesn't.



Oh, and by the way... I have looked at MBP's for gaming before, and I am positive it's the right balance of speed, battery, size, and price for someone... but sorry, it's not right for nearly as many people who are jumping on the Steve Jobbs bandwagon. If you follow my posting, pretty much all I do is go against the grain for the sake of going against the grain, because I think mob mentality is so damaging and I aim to counter it.

 

Hep, check out the specs fully before you post links...

its screen res is smaller then 1440, which many people already complain is too small on a 15.4inch already. And the screens bigger. Bigger screen, and smaller res? compare that, and weight, and thickness, ddr2..

Honestly, i dunno, it seems like you have a personal vendetta against people getting apples..

 

What's the mobile 8800GS? If that's a good card, that's a fantastic price. (Except...I want an LED backlight )

 

Like I said... the balance is right for someone, just probably not as many as people who are buying them... I feel like people get stuck on the MBP without realizing it might not be best for their needs.

And perhaps I do have a personal vendetta against apple
Despite owning a few, I think Apple is an evil corporation.

 

As opposed to Micro$oft? LoL, didn't think I'd ever hear someone calling another PC company besides Micro$oft the devil...

 

I hate how they ditch APIs and compatibility at the drop of a hat and have a closed mobile OS X store

 

i know there are better alternatives for gaming, but battery life is still an issue, also, portability. this is why i think apple is the perfect fit for me, as you have pointed out..

if i were to buy a laptop to leave it at home, and occasionally take it with me and i owned a car, i would definitely look elsewhere, however, i am a student that needs to take a bus, walk long distances and needs a relatively light laptop to carry it around

 

This has probably been covered already, but just FYI Apple's notebooks apparently get much better battery life in OS X than Vista (though similar to other Vista notebooks apparently).

 

Yeah, Microsoft has a monopoly, but I don't think they're evil. Bill Gates might be a little dishonest (seeing as he just bought the software that started his multi-billion dollar company, and marketed it very well), but in the end I think he did not do anything wrong... He does not lie about the capabilities of his product, and more importantly, he does not put down his competition... especially by saying untrue things about the competition. Speak well of your competitors, then explain why you are better.

Steve Jobs only cares about profits. He is no doubt an excellent speaker, but he tells people they need things and they believe him. He tells people that Apple is superior (with no backing) and people again, believe him. Apple used to be about quality, and that's gone down the tubes, Apples have some of the highest failure rates in the industry. Their processors used to use a superior architecture - and that's now gone as well. Why? Because using Intel CPUs is WAY cheaper for Apple. It has nothing to do with "empowering the user" as they may claim, since you're now losing out on what I personally think was one of their biggest selling points before - they really WERE different. Now, a Mac is a shiny PC with a big price tag. Not to mention all of these blatant lies about how "it just works." I would go so far to say that people have more problems with Macs than PCs, but seeing as Macs have such a minority of the PC market, the sheer quantity of PC users gives it the bad wrap.

Again, I am merely the crusader of truth. I wish to disassemble the aggressive and dishonest marketing tactics used by companies like Apple. In the end, the MBP may be right for you, and I am okay with that. But please, all I am asking is for you not to buy into the lies that come from Steve Jobs' mouth.

EDIT: And I won't lie. Apple does some pretty cool and innovative things, like the iPhone. But my PPC G5 is the last Mac I intend to over own, unless they start pricing more competitively.

 

true, my MBP can get over 4 hours in OS, but only 2hours under bootcamp with either vista or XP..

this is a shame... but i decided to go OS X only to see how it goes, and i am liking it so far.. extra HD space just gives me peace of mind

 

i kind of disagree on apple using intel chips being a bad thing. I think that this just helped a lot of people, both mac and PC users to be compatible with each other..

i am no apple fanboy, this is my first mac i ever owned.. and i have nothing against vista, i prefer vista than OS X to be honest.. but the problem was finding a nice portable laptop that had the battery life + power i needed, the Z was a close call, but the discrete card was too weak..

 

Yes. VMWare Fusion see's the Bootcamp partition and allows it to run as a virtual machine while running OS X. I'm using VMWare 2.0 (free upgrade from fusion 1.1).

HM

 

Wow, I heard that Apple had the best failure rate in the industry a while ago. It was all over the forums and apple news sites. Anyway I think the move to intel is the best move Apple has made this decade.

It sounds as if you have better alternative tactics that would have helped Apple reach to the point where they are now, please share them.

What Apple is accomplishing as a company the past years is remarkable in a business sense. I think most people would agree that Steve Jobs has defined a new generation of it products and mentality. Apple would not be here if not for Steve Jobs leadership decisions.

I am constantly amazed how for example Apple could have a single product launch and get on the first page of major newspapers across the world, while for example Sony makes a huge release with 20 new products and its not even in the first page of any major newspaper.

No company is perfect, but companies work to serve us and their shareholders, its not a one way street.

I have a hard time seeing how better hardware and better compatibility which has given mac users a huge array of new options and freedoms lately is a bad thing.

Its really cool that even though macs share more similarities than ever with PC equivalents, they have still found a lot of ways to innovate and set themselves apart from the competition.

 

I'm not sure what you mean by "best failure rate", but they're right with the rest of the pack for notebooks, and better than average for desktops. Sony's the only brand that consistently does better than the rest year after year (and Toshiba is about half of the time average, half of the time more like Sony). At least for brands Consumer Reports tracks. I've never seen Apple do better than average, before or after the switch.

 

Most probably be getting a MBP, the way I see it I probably be doing more work than lounging and playing games. At the moment really want to play COD4 and Dead Space.

 

Be careful with PC games anymore. A whole lot of them have "activation" DRM, so you don't own them. Dead Space for sure.

Stardock's retail games don't, nor do Bethesda's games so far (so I bought Fallout 3 to support them...it does have that software, but it just uses it as a disc check, so hopefully it'll be okay...)

 

I see the point and the reason why people don't like the new drm that many games have. But i guess it doesn't bother me. I usually just install a game once, play it, beat it. And if i ever install it again, it would be many years down the line. I guess if people buy a game to install on mutiple pcs, then thats where they get stuck. Or its just the notion of not ownig the game.

Also, what happens if their activation servers go down, get moved, or dont exist in 5-10 years? Can you not install and play the game anymore?